Dallin waiting for the baby to come out
And waiting...
Then he finally came. Daddy helped Dallin cut the cord.
Eden loves her new baby.
Tanner is more interested in being silly.
Eden compared feet.
Not too exited.
Now a family of six! What a bunch of monkeys!Still pregnant here, so I thought I would share a lovely story, not. First of all, I have been sleeping horrible for the last few months as you can imagine, many trips to the bathroom, tossing and turning, adjusting all the pillows, the occasional crying child, the toddler that crawls in our bed and sleeps sideways and kicks(why did we ever allow that habit?) ,throwing off blankets because I am hot and then putting them back on later, and worst of all the pinched nerve in my back that acts up when I am sleeping which makes sleep impossible and is only alleviated by doing back rows with weights(I have been up lifting weights in the middle of the night many times lately) or heating pads. It has been over 100 degrees here this week and it is not cooling off at night so the other night we went to bed with the A/C on 76 degrees. I woke up many times sweating so I kept getting up and turning the thermostat down one degree at a time. In the morning I discovered that I had taken it all the way down to 71! I think I will probably get better sleep when the baby comes.
So with all of that going on I was so relieved last night because I went to bed and when I first woke up to use the restroom, to my surprise, it was getting light outside. Ah, it felt so good to have a good nights rest. I noticed that the above mentioned toddler had crawled in between us as usual, but just went back to bed since it would be time to get up soon anyway (we get up at 6). The next thing I knew, I woke up and noticed that I was soaked. My first thought was, wow my water broke! It only took a moment to discover however that it if your water breaks it would not get all over your belly and that my sweet toddler had wet the bed!!! That never happens, and of course they were right up next to me when it happened. I am not sure if I was more grossed out or more disappointed that it wasn't my water that broke. Actually, I think life is pretty funny at our house with never a dull moment. I am fully aware that I do not make motherhood and having a bunch of little ones look glamorous, but I really do love it.
I try to always stay possitive, but every once in a while I find that I get a little autism depressed. These are times when I am so tired and frustrated and I feel that no one in the world understands what life is like. One evening I was having such a hard time I spent a long time at the bookstore looking for some kind of comfort in the autism section and left empty handed. Then I finally found this book on Amazon. Its full of short stories that are uplifting and hopeful and I find that when I am feeling down it really does give me a cup of comfort. I am happy to say that I have not needed it much at all lately because things have been going so well with my little Dallin. Still, I am so glad to have it when I am having those "moments". 
I have been working on Emergency Preparedness the last few weeks. One thing that I just needed to make sense of was if I am going to invest in a lot of food storage, I need to figure out an economical way that I would cook in an emergency. This led me to dutch oven cooking with charcoal. These ovens are so versatile and charcoal is a very cheap and safe way to store fuel. You can even calculate the temperature control pretty easily. So I have now invested in 2 ovens and a bunch of charcoal along with my other essentials that I stocking up on. I also think we will have tons of fun with these for years to come with camping and boy scouts etc. 
Eden is such a girl she cracks me up. Okay, first my confession: I have been trying to make life as easy as possible for myself the last couple of weeks. I do the laundry and then I just sort all the clothes into baskets on the dining room table, one for each person. At least the laundry is clean and sorted, that is as far as I get right now. So with easy access to her clothes, Eden changes her clothes like 10 times a day. Sometimes it is just back and forth between a couple of things, other times she adds layers of pants or skirts on top of the current outfit. She also plops on any of her handful of hats. This morning she had them all on at once. She has about 3 pair of shoes that she changes all day long as well. Other times she is seen carrying around one of her few purses stocked with toys. It is so funny that every time I turn around something is different. I don't want to restrict her because it is so cute, and hey maybe she will eventually be able to get her shirt on right side out and not backward. I don't know what exactly prompts her to go and change, she will just all of the sudden go do it. Normally I would have an accompanying picture, but I packed my camera in my hospital bag yesterday and without easy access, I got a little lazy. After all that would require a trip all the way up the stairs and then I would have to remember why I went up there in the first place. Forget trying to remember the next time I happen to go up, that is just too much to ask ;)
word of the day: I can't remember if I put this one on before but Dallin and Eden have been heard saying Up-Slide-Down (up-side-down)quite frequently around here.
I was driving to the Doctor the other day and talking to Peter on the phone. All of the sudden he described to me what was happening at home. Eden casually walked out of the toy room, got a stool, climbed up and opened the food cupboard, found the maple syrup, opened it, took a drink, put it back, climbed down and casually walked back into the toy room. The difference was that Peter allowed her to do it a few times while he laughed and took pictures. I don't think that is quite the way I would have handled it, but still, so funny. What a character.
Peter, Dallin and Tanner had a great time camping last night. They had fun setting up the tent, eating hot dogs and making smores. Sounds like it was a total hit.
Eden and I had a girls night out and went to dinner and then watched Enchanted. Eden loved having me all to herself. She even got to sleep in my bed with me which was a real treat.
Today was a day that I have been dreading. I have been stewing over where to put Dallin for kindergarten and today we had our IEP meeting with the school district to discuss it. I have been reading up on rights and laws and getting all of my thoughts together for weeks. I prayerfully came to the conclusion that Dallin should be in a typical kindergarten next year because he is doing so well and I don't want to hold him back at all. He is very social and I think he needs to be around typical kids so that he can learn how to be more socially appropriate. I also think that is the best thing we can do for his language development. I believe kids really learn the most from their peers. So we went head to head with the district recommending an autism kindergarten for 3 hours. We did get somewhere though and they agreed to let him go to a typical classroom with and aid. Wahoo!!! What a relief. I seriously had to be a mommy lawyer and really advocate for him. I took this picture of Dallin this morning and put a copy in the front of his education notebook that I keep all his evaluations in and I just kept looking down at him and it gave me the strength to hold my ground. We still need to work out all of the details, which there are tons of, but at least we are in a great starting place now. I am so glad it is over although there will probably be more meetings to iron out everything and I have not signed anything.
The reason that the district recommends the autism program is because it is so much easier for them and cheaper. I could tell they really had no good data to suggest that Dallin couldn't function in a typical kindergarten with an aid. So of course they kept pushing for this and trying to get me to back down.
We feel really good about our decision and I really think Dallin will be in full bloom next year. He will have a full time aid trained by our ABA company with him all the time, but only help him if it is needed with minimal prompting. He will continue with his home therapy as well for 3 hours every afternoon. He will also have help with Occupational therapy and Speech therapy through his school. This should be a great combination and because he is progressing so quickly I think it will be an amazing year for him.
I remember about a year and a half ago when Dallin was very sick with one of his ear infections Peter gave him a blessing. In the blessing Peter said that Dallin would be able to learn to talk and that he would be able to learn and to behave and function well. I sobbed as I heard those words but couldn't really see how it would ever be possible. Today I see that this blessing has completely changed our lives and brought us to where we are now. The Lord took us in his hand and gave us all the tools that we needed. Dallin is an amazing little boy and I can't WAIT to see how much more he is capable of this next year. Going through all of the trials with him has only increased my love and affection for him. Watching his development lately I have just been in awe of him. I love that little boy so much.
Well it was hard to wait a whole week because I wanted to see what it looked like but today we finally took Eden's bandage off. I am so pleased with the result. The cut stayed closed and seems to be sealed shut. It was open about a quarter inch before. I didn't take any pictures before but trust me, it looks so much better. There is not really much scabbing and it feels very smooth like there isn't a lot of scar tissue forming. The important thing now is to keep it out of the sun and keep it moist. I found that Maderma now makes a cream that has SPF 30 in it. I have to put it on 3 times a day for 2 months!!! The only reason I care so much is because it is right there on her cheek. I have a family member who has dealt with a prominent facial scar her whole life and I just don't want Eden to have to deal with that. I hope that after 2 months it will not even be noticeable. I think she is in good shape thanks to the tape that the doc put on. I agree it was the best thing now that I see the results.
We went to visit Peter for lunch on Saturday in Stockton and went to our favorite pizza place. This is the kids watching the virtual roller coaster. I thought it was kind of neat to see all of there profiles lined up like that.
Peter with Zora at the Pizza place.
Why oh why do I still have 21 days to go? Not to whine too much but I seriously feel like this baby needs to come out NOW! I really believe that the last four weeks of pregnancy where you are feeling that you are physically pushed to the max but still have time left is just to make sure that you are mentally over the edge as well. Okay, life's not that bad but I will be one happy woman if this baby comes out sooner than later. Alright no more whining, thats all.
Tanner LOVES his alligator. He cries for it all the time. He has to sleep with it (and his special blanky). He wants it when he is sad, or in the car, or any time. He can't stand the other kids to have it. So much for soft teddy bears! It love it when he says alligator in his cute little voice. I just think it is such a funny choice for a comfort item.
Peter got the estimating position that he applied for! He is such a go getter. The crazy thing was that the day before they interviewed him, they laid off a bunch of electricians and told the others that they had to work a job in San Francisco or be laid off too. Peter would not have taken a job that far away and been laid off too, but they had already decided to put him in the estimating department. Without his Construction Management degree they wouldn't have even considered making him an estimator, so once again we have been blessed. I don't think it would have worked if he had been laid off and then tried to get the position so it is a good thing he is proactive. He won't make any more money for now but once he finishes his apprenticeship hours in January, there should be some nice changes in his income.
Here are a couple of random funny pictures:
This is what I see when I look down! I have to bend WAY over to see my feet of course. 
Tanner thought this was the funnest discovery in the world!
Eden has not had very good luck the last couple of days. Yesterday she came running to me with a little scrape on her cheek (left). Apparently Dallin pushed her and she fell or something. 
Then this morning at 7:30 Eden decided to jump off of the bean bag and dove right into the TV stand. Unfortunately there was a little screw sticking out because a knob came off. I didn't realize it was even there because Peter had cut it off, but someone pulled it out farther. I could tell right away that we were going to the doctor today. I called everyone I knew in the ward for help with the boys, but then ended up asking John's wife Sarah to come help, which she was happy to do (it is a 40 minute drive). I can't tell you how nice it is to find someone so willing to help, I was so grateful.
So Eden and I went off to the urgent clinic in Sacramento. The doctor didn't think stitches would be the best thing to do so she taped the cut together with this tape stuff. The cut is horizontal and about 3/4 inch long but it was pretty opened up being right on her cheek. I am really worried that the doctor was just trying to get it done and that there may have been more done to prevent a big scar. I think it would have been better to go to a plastic surgeon or some kind of specialist even if it cost a lot. I guess I will be investing in some Maderma now. I am supposed to keep the tape on it for a whole week. I hope she can leave it alone for that long. Believe it or not we have never had any of our kids need stitches yet, although I think this pretty much counts.
Yesterday I really needed to get out of the house so Peter took us to a lake about 40 minutes from our house. We explored around the area a little bit and took the kids swimming. It was really hot and we found a nice shallow inlet just right for our little ones. They all got new hats and sunglasses, which they loved too. It was so nice to get out and do something fun. There was lots of water play, finding rocks and watching out for snakes (we didn't see any, but there were rattle snake warnings which Eden really took seriously). The kids had a blast, and I was mostly a spectator. I am counting down the days until I can once again feel like a person and not a house.
All of my kids had dirty faces, but I will put these on anyway.
Okay, most people do pest control to get through college so we never imagined that Peter would be starting his seventh year of it! Here is a job update for Peter: He is working for Berg Electric which is a big national company. He is trying to finish his 4 years of apprenticeship hours so that he can test and be a journeyman. That should be around January, Yay! He was working on a big commercial job in Sacramento, but then he had to take 2 weeks off to go to the apprenticeship class. Now that he is back they have taken him off of that job and he is in the warehouse for now. That is where they stick people until they have another placement so he is preparing materials for the jobs. He is interested in learning more about estimating so he spoke with someone and gave him an application. He talked with the apprenticeship and they said that those hours would count if he worked in that department. So we are crossing our fingers about that because it is what he wants to do and it would keep him close to home. Most of the other jobs going on are at least 2 hours away and Peter is not interested in doing that.
So that brings us to pest control. We just need a little more to make ends meet so Peter has decided to sell with his brother on Saturdays and about 2 weekday evenings a week. At least it is not full time pest control for him. They also pay for our rent if he sells enough so that is a big motivation as well. Peter's goal is to still be able to make about 200 sales this summer by the end of September. I am so glad that we will have him on 4 nights a week and Sundays. It is not going to be easy around here without him. On selling days he will leave the house at 6:30am and get home around 10:00pm. He must really love us to work so hard. I love that guy.
While I am talking about Peter I must say that he has been so helpful during this pregnancy. He is very involved with the kids when he his home and will always give me breaks to rest. He has pitched in with the house work a ton and even does the dishes every night. It really takes a team to raise these little kids, I could never do it alone. I am so lucky to have you Peter!
This weekend we finished our parent training course. It was soooo good. I am so exited to internalize everything. I know it will help Dallin so much as well as our other children. I really like the strategies that we learned because they are so positive and Christlike. It just feels right. I love it. I am so grateful to have opportunities to understand autism. I still feel like I am just beginning to scratch the surface with it all but so much more knowledgeable than 2 years ago. I have a really long way to go with learning federal and state laws on rights, but I am learning all the time.
Yesterday John and Sarah came over and we had dinner and played games. They are so fun to play games with, no matter what we play we just laugh the whole time. Our kids really love Uncle John. They get so exited when we tell them he is coming over. Tanner was calling him Daddy John yesterday. Tanner thinks anyone without hair is John now too.
My little potato heads.
Three skirts is better than one.
Eden cracks me up. She can undress and dress herself really well, but struggles a little bit taking her shirt off. I thought she was getting it and so in the morning and at night I just hand her the outfit to wear and she takes care of the rest. She even puts her dirty clothes in the hamper. So yesterday I happened to see her struggling to put her pajama top on. She was trying to put it over her shirt that she had on. I went over to help her and discovered that she still had on her shirt from yesterday under that layer too. Apparently if it doesn't come off easy, she just layers over the top of her shirts! Good thing I caught it at 3 layers!
Eden has also been helping us pick a baby name. Her top choice is Pig. Last night she suggested Cinderella. She is such a helpful little sweetheart.
Well, I have survived half of Dallin's month off of school. He is actually a really good boy, but still very intense and needs a lot of guidance. I see a big difference compared to the last time he was off school though. Two more weeks and I may be able to get some stuff done again. It has been really great for him to have so much time to play with Eden this month. They are really good little buddies and I don't have to do so much now that she screams at him if he does anything she doesn't like. I wish it was going so well with Tanner, but they have their cute playmate moments too. Good thing Tanner is pretty tough.
We are still agonizing over where to place Dallin for Kindergarten next year. Our meeting is May 7, and we really need to have an opinion by then. I was really leaning toward and autism kindergarten, but he is doing really well and I think he may be ready to be in a typical setting. One thing I was reading is that when you teach autistic children social skills, even if they really understand, if they use the skills on their peers and it is not reciprocated they will stop using the skill within minutes. If Dallin were with typical peers it would definitely be more ideal for his social development. The big question is, is he ready for that environment or does he need one more year in a highly structured environment. To me this is a crucial decision that we need to get right. Ahhhh... I have been so back and forth I don't even know anymore.
Last night I gave Peter a kiss. It was so funny because afterward he said "you know what I like about kissing you? I don't have to worry about getting yucky snot or slobber on me like I do with the kids when they kiss me." He had me rolling because it is so true!
I talked about everyone but Tanner. Umm... he is still so way cute. Peter and I are always joking that he is our favorite. I think I just really love the age. Lately after we put the kids to bed (all in the same room) Tanner will wait until everyone else is asleep and then he will start to call for Daddy. It is so cute that Peter will go get him up and we will play with him for an extra hour just because we can't resist his cuteness. Okay I think I just said cute way too many times, but that is the best way to describe our little Tan man.
As for me, I seem to be in full nesting mode this week. I can't stop deep cleaning everything and trying to make sure everything is organized. It is kind of nice because our house really needs it. I even painted over all of the crayon art on the walls. There was a lot after living here almost a year with 3 toddlers. So naughty! It feels so good to see the walls completely white again. The pregnancy is going well but I keep asking myself if I can really do another 5 1/2 weeks. The hardest thing right now is that my hips are so loose that they keep getting out of alignment or something and it is really really painful. I have never had that problem before. I move around like I am 90 years old. Especially getting in the car or putting pants on, anything that I have to lift my legs for. Cleaning takes about double the normal time. Pregnancy is so crazy.
Peter decided that Dallin was ready for his first ski trip. I told Dallin that he was going to go yesterday and he was so exited he could hardly contain himself. This morning he woke up and was ready to go. As we expected, Dallin loves to ski. Peter could hardly talk him into taking any breaks and just wanted to be out on the slopes all day from 9 to 4. Man this kid is so much like his dad sometimes its crazy. He also got tired of the bunny slope pretty quickly and they spent most of the day going on the big lifts. Peter held onto him most of the time, but he did pretty well by himself for his first time too. Dallin had the time of his life and is already trying to figure out when he gets to go again.
This isn't exactly a Warren Miller Film, but he is a pretty cute little skier.
You have outgrown most of your cute maternity tops and find yourself thumbing through your husbands t-shirts more than your own wardrobe!
I get so mad when I have to buy those cream of mushroom or celery cans for over a dollar at the store. Especially when a recipe calls for 2 cans. So here are 2 recipe solutions. I think the first one is a mix that could be great for using your food storage and for always having it on hand. These cost a fraction of what a can of soup would cost and you can pronounce all of the ingredients!
Cream Soup Substitute
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups dry milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup chicken bouillon granules
2 tablespoons dried onion flakes,
optional1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil,
optional1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano,
optional1/2 teaspoon ground marjoram,
optional1/2 teaspoon pepper2 to 3 teaspoons butter
PREPARATION:Combine all ingredients except butter together and store in airtight container. To use, mix 1/2 cup dry soup mix with 1 1/4 cups water and cook until thick; add butter. This is equal to one can cream soup.The mix makes enough to equal 9 to 10 cans. For cream of mushroom or celery soup, add chopped sauteé mushrooms or celery along with the butter while cooking
Cream Soup Substitute II
INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup low-fat or fat free milksalt and pepper to taste
PREPARATION:Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in flour; keep stirring until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat and add the chicken broth and milk, a little at a time, stirring to keep smooth.Return to heat. Bring sauce to a gentle boil; cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Taste and add salt and pepper, as needed to taste.Use in casseroles in place of condensed cream soups.Can be varied by using vegetable broth, sauteéd chopped celery, celery seed, or sauteéd chopped mushrooms.
Yes, my dream has finally come true. I am a real soccer mom! We signed Eden and Dallin up for a rec center class to see how they would do. So far, they are doing great. They are both following directions and totally love it. This was their second week. This means that we will sign them up for the league that starts in May. 
The class was for ages 3-4 so Dallin is probably the oldest one there. That is good I think. He seems to be very athletic already and understands what he is supposed to do.
Eden is usually the last one to the other side of the gym but she LOVES soccer. She is always more interested in hugging her coaches and getting their encouragement than anything else though. She just loves being part of something.
At the end of their class they played their first "game". They got to put jerseys on and have nets up. It was hilarious because they would all chase the ball and inevitably someone would stop the ball with their hands and then squish it with their foot and everyone would stand around like "what do we do next?" The couches would encourage them to kick the ball and it would start all over again. Dallin got the ball several times but I will spare you the 5 minute video. This is just a short clip of the class.
I was called in for an ultrasound yesterday. The doctor was worried about placenta previa, which would mean I would need to have a c-section, but everything was fine. I have never had such a good technician. She was so nice and even did some 3D ultrasound pictures for me. Everything looks good with the baby and he is already estimated to be a whopping 5 pounds 14 oz. Yikes! I guess we are going to have a big baby.
Peter's brother John and his family moved 30 minutes away from here for summer sales. We are so exited to have some family around again. We have been hanging out and enjoying them the last couple of weekends. We played a hilarious game of Scrabble, watched conference, and played "duck, duck, monster truck" on the trampoline with the kids.
Here is a little clip of Tanner and Zora. Zora is so cute, whenever we turned the camera on she would stop what she was doing. Tanner is really intimidated by babies so he was pretty offended every time she touched him. It was so funny. I think the 2 proud daddys are pretty cute too.
I was fortunate enough to hear about this special parent training seminar that they were going to do at the UC Davis Mind Institute. This is one of the top places doing studies on autism, very state of the art. That is another benefit of living here, it is only a half hour away. So a few weeks ago I submitted an application and crossed my fingers. We did get accepted and we were so exited. It was even funded by a grant so it was free for us! I would guess that this training would cost a lot for both Peter and I to have.
So it started on Friday night and then went all day on Saturday. It is a small class with only about 15 people. It is basically training us to work with our child with the same theory as his in home therapy. It is called Applied Behavior Analysis. The teacher is soooo good and we learned so much. We have done "parent trainings" before that turned out to be more like a support group and we didn't get as much out of it. This was very different. It was actual skills that we can use to help Dallin function better on a day to day basis. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time because as he was teaching us, I felt like he knew Dallin and our challenges that we have. We feel like we have more understanding into the mind of autism and if we can help the world make sense to Dallin more than his behaviors will be much more appropriate. It was so awesome. They even gave us a great book to use as a resource. I felt like a sponge trying to soak it all in. We will be better parents to all of our children for sure if we implement these teaching strategies.
In two weekends from now we get to go again for another full weekend of training. I know I say it all the time but we have been so blessed. I can't even imagine where we would be right now if we were not here. I really feel like we are doing the best we can for Dallin and that is something we will never have regrets about. He deserves the best chance as he starts his life just like any child would.
We had the missionaries over for dinner and we had home made hot fudge sauce with yummy Costco ice cream for dessert and Dallin exclaimed very matter of fact, "Ice cream is delicious!...Poo poo is not delicious...its gross." Of course while the missionaries were turning reddish and trying not to laugh I was secretly beaming at Dallin's display of original thought and language. It was funny.
While I am on that subject, the other day I told Eden that she needed to go flush the potty after she had used it. She looked at me and said "no, I don't want to flush, I want to keep it." I think we are just so proud of going poop in the potty around here that she thought it was her trophy.
Yesterday we went on a field trip with Dallin's class to a train museum. Dallin was in heaven. He could have stayed and explored all day. There were lots of full sized trains to look at and walk through. There was even a toy train area on the second floor which was a hit too of course. 
Looking into a coal furnace.
Inside a train. This was a passenger train. We also went in a postal car, dining car, and sleeping car.
Dallin's cute class. Lots of the kids kept saying hi to Dallin. One even held his hand for a while. I can tell he has made some good friends this year.
